If you don’t know yet, Caltech’s sex discrimination policy includes a specific clause (Article 15.5) prohibiting any relationship between employees—meaning faculty, postdocs, and staff—and undergraduate students. It also advises caution and professionalism in any relationship where a power imbalance exists.
As Caltech researchers, there is perhaps nothing so guarded as data. We scrutinize with excessive detail our data collection methods, data analysis methods, false-positive and false negative rates, and possible sources of bias to ensure that our interpretation of said data is trustworthy. But even before that…we make sure the data is there.
It is well known that A.I. companies have red-teaming, RLHF, and guardrail teams specialized in protecting against hate speech, bomb-making, or any crazy idea that pops into a person’s destructive mind. However, even with protection, the A.I. can be “tricked” and bypass the blockade, creating monstrosities. If there are psychopathic humans capable of manipulating and convincing crowds, just imagine a tool built with data from the entire internet.
My reign of terror is over, and my era as ASCIT President has come to its end. Through this opportunity, Caltech and its community have taught me countless lessons that I wouldn’t be able to learn in any classroom, and I thank each and every one of you for the faith you’ve put in me as the ASCIT President and the ways you’ve helped me grow.
It is no secret that America’s leadership in science and technology was not born by accident—it was built through public investment, public partnerships with academia, and government sanction of private sector monopoly. From the Apollo program to the Human Genome Project, from the internet to the transistor, the United States once treated research and development (R&D) as a cornerstone of national security and economic strength. For some time the facade has been quietly crumbling away, but last week’s FY2026 Discretionary Budget Request rocked the foundations of that legacy hard enough to bring down its edifice.
At the Kill the Cuts rally on April 8th, I gave the following speech to Caltech and USC contingents in front of the 300 North Los Angeles Federal Building. I hope its words resonate with the current scientific/political/cultural moment. They represent my truest feelings, the joyous and the vitriolic, as best as I can compress and verbalize them.
Here are some classes I found fun, even if they’re not everyone’s idea of a “good class.” While most of the Core and other courses are designed just to introduce the fundamentals of a subject, the ones below stood out for being especially engaging.
Caltech claims to strive to “expand human knowledge and benefit society.” A necessary requisite to accomplish this mission is a community that values intellectual diversity. One where peers challenge the preconceived notions of others, and where all can speak freely. We, thus, have a vested interest in protecting free speech.
I have discovered that, deep down, each of us secretly cultivates the desire to be elsewhere. It’s as if, despite all the sacrifices made to get to one of the most prestigious universities in the world, we suddenly discover that complete satisfaction is an illusion.
